Whether Passive Scandal May Happen Even to the Perfect?
Objection 1: It would seem that passive scandal may happen even to
the perfect. For Christ was supremely perfect: and yet He said to
Peter (Matt. 16:23): "Thou art a scandal to Me." Much more therefore
can other perfect men suffer scandal.
Obj. 2: Further, scandal denotes an obstacle which is put in a
person's spiritual way. Now even perfect men can be hindered in their
progress along the spiritual way, according to 1 Thess. 2:18: "We
would have come to you, I Paul indeed, once and again; but Satan hath
hindered us." Therefore even perfect men can suffer scandal.
Obj. 3: Further, even perfect men are liable to venial sins,
according to 1 John 1:8: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves." Now passive scandal is not always a mortal sin, but is
sometimes venial, as stated above (A. 4). Therefore passive scandal
may be found in perfect men.
_On the contrary,_ Jerome, in commenting on Matt. 18:6, "He that
shall scandalize one of these little ones," says: "Observe that it is
the little one that is scandalized, for the elders do not take
scandal."
_I answer that,_ Passive scandal implies that the mind of the person
who takes scandal is unsettled in its adherence to good. Now no man
can be unsettled, who adheres firmly to something immovable. The
elders, i.e. the perfect, adhere to God alone, Whose goodness is
unchangeable, for though they adhere to their superiors, they do so
only in so far as these adhere to Christ, according to 1 Cor. 4:16:
"Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ." Wherefore, however
much others may appear to them to conduct themselves ill in word or
deed, they themselves do not stray from their righteousness,
according to Ps. 124:1: "They that trust in the Lord shall be as
Mount Sion: he shall not be moved for ever that dwelleth in
Jerusalem." Therefore scandal is not found in those who adhere to God
perfectly by love, according to Ps. 118:165: "Much peace have they
that love Thy law, and to them there is no stumbling-block
(_scandalum_)."
Reply Obj. 1: As stated above (A. 2, ad 2), in this passage, scandal
is used in a broad sense, to denote any kind of hindrance. Hence Our
Lord said to Peter: "Thou art a scandal to Me," because he was
endeavoring to weaken Our Lord's purpose of undergoing His Passion.
Reply Obj. 2: Perfect men may be hindered in the performance of
external actions. But they are not hindered by the words or deeds of
others, from tending to God in the internal acts of the will,
according to Rom. 8:38, 39: "Neither death, nor life . . . shall be
able to separate us from the love of God."
Reply Obj. 3: Perfect men sometimes fall into venial sins through the
weakness of the flesh; but they are not scandalized (taking scandal
in its true sense), by the words or deeds of others, although there
can be an approach to scandal in them, according to Ps. 72:2: "My
feet were almost moved."
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